With my birthday coming up a lovely new viola has joined my instrument family (I swear, I only forgot my instrument-control-pills once ). Anyway it arrived yesterday and I noticed the soundpost collapsed in transport, so I have to get it fixed first. Will this be a large repair or is it something simple?

It is something quite simple but in the meantime lower the string tension (a lot!) to reduce the stress on the belly. Loosen it off so that the bridge only just stays in place. Not that it matters if the bridge falls down but you might lose it or scratch the varnish.

A luthier should be able to put it back in in a couple of minutes, assuming that it was properly fitted in the first place. Ask him to show you how to ease the bridge when you bring the strings back up to pitch.

It is possible that the soundpost wasn't well fitted in the first place. Because it is so critical to the sound of the instrument I would accept any offer to fit a new one, if recommended.

I hope you can get it fixed as soon as poss - it must be very frustrating not being able to try out your lovely new instrument.

Thanks for the advice . I think I will be able to go to a luthier on saturday, so with any luck I will be able to try it this weekend

The tail gut broke on my spare bass, and the sound post fell. I noticed that my luthier used a stick of soft glue (Pritstick?) on both ends, to hold the post in place before tensioning the strings.

The sound-post fell over in my violin once (when I was bringing it from England to France). It took the luthier about one minute to put it back with a sort of long hook and he wouldn't even accept payment.

This happened to my cello . I think the bigger the instrument the harder it gets to put the soundpost back in. My teacher took it out and adjusted it last Wed. as the violin teacher had put it back in a couple of weeks ago but he couldn't get it central. My cello teacher put it back in a slightly better place...and I get home to find it's moved to be really wonky again . It'll have to stay like that till it completely comes out again now...

It is fixed! I took it to a luthier today and as you all predicted it only took him 5 minutes to fix things. So I was finally able to try it today. It is gorgeous , but I didn't expect it to be so heavy . I hope I will be able to get a few lessons soon to get me started.

I'm sorry to hear about your cello Musicfreak. I hope it'll get sorted soon.

Thankyou and I'm glad your viola is fixed. Unfortunately my cello isn't actually mine (it belongs to music service youth orchestra) and I'm just going to have to put up with it for now, as getting my own isn't an option.

A cello soundpost shouldn't just keep falling over if it is the correct length. As well as causing you inconvenience and stopping you from practicing whenever it falls down, even if it is up it won't be working anything like as well as it should if it is not the right size.

You should mention this to your teacher as soon as possible and ask to have the sound post checked and replaced as it keeps coming out.

Right. There's nothing high-tech about a soundpost except its length,* which should be such that it is an easy push fit in the instrument when all strings are slack. Then it will be very firm when the strings are tensioned.

* I presume its ends need to be very slightly shaped to the plates, so maybe they are "medium-tech". If there is a luthier reading this, please will they tell us what is involved in fitting a new post.